The Lerner Blog

Happy Free Book Friday! This week one lucky Lerner fan will win our new Robyn Hunter Mysteries series by Norah McClintock. Robyn Hunter is a Canadian teen with a talent for getting into trouble. Fortunately, she also has a talent for detective work. Throughout this series, Robyn races to solve mysteries and keep her friends—and herself—out of […]Read more "Free Book Friday"

I asked veteran production editor Julie Harman to guest blog today. On this day 58 years ago, the Supreme Court announced its unanimous decision in the case Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. The Court ruled racial segregation in schools to be unconstitutional. Before this ruling, segregation had been allowed under the separate-but-equal doctrine. […]Read more ""A Day That Will Live in Glory""

Graphic Universe’s much anticipated and beautifully produced new book Little White Duck: A Childhood in China received a star review from Kirkus. The book is about sisters growing up in Wuhan, China immediately following the Cultural Revolution and Chairman Mao Zedong’s decades-long reign. Kirkus calls Little White Duck, “a striking glimpse into Chinese girlhood during […]Read more "Little White Duck Receives Big Gold Star"

A round-up of interesting internets! How can the D.C Council think cutting school librarians is a good idea? (Washington Post) Rubber Duck Volcano –  “A Plinian eruption using a 32-gallon trash can filled with water, 100 rubber ducks, and some liquid nitrogen.” (BoingBoing) Why are kids’ e-book sales surging? Partly because adults are reading them. […]Read more "Digital Potpourri 5/15"

The Sendak interview excerpt above, from NPR Books, was making the rounds on Facebook last week and, for me, sums up Sendak’s delightful ability to find logic in absurdity. It also somehow reminded me of one of my favorite lines from Notorious, a classic Hitchcock film from 1946. At one point, secret agent Alicia Huberman […]Read more "Maurice Sendak (1928-2012)"

It’s no secret around here that I have a soft spot for the field of linguistics. While, sadly, editorial work doesn’t have me poring over sound spectrograms to analyze the formants of human speech, we do get to enjoy working with words on a daily basis and working with other editors who just happen to […]Read more "Neologisms"

I recently purchased a new camera, and so to learn how to use it, I’ve been taking a lot of pictures. This is fun, but it does mean there is a backlog of images on the memory card to review. Many things can be learned in the review process: what’s working, what’s not, necessary next […]Read more "Anonymity and Shoes—and Photography"

If you haven’t already, you have nothing better to do today than to read this (frustratingly, you may have to manually click to page 80).  Read more "Ida played her wonder horn"

Original photo credit Jennifer ball/biography.com Despite his intense hatred of eBooks, Maurice Sendak has a special place in this blogger’s heart. “Where the Wild Things Are”, and “The Nutshell Library” (“Chicken Soup With Rice”, in particular) are two of my favorite books from childhood. Mr. Sendak passed away Tuesday from complications of a recent stroke. […]Read more "Maurice Sendak, Author of Where the Wild Things Are, Dead at 83"